New Meds and More Prayers

Lottie is still sick. It has been a tough couple of days as she has refused to eat or drink very much at all. She slept great last night (12.5 hours) but woke up just as pitiful as the day before. She perked up just a little bit after eating a few small bites at breakfast and we even saw a couple of smiles throughout the morning. We had corresponded with the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham to let them know what was going on and seek their advice on what we should do. They suggested we start on a different antibiotic (we had already given her a dose of Zithromax) that would target a possible UTI. With Lottie's Spina Bifida, she is more prone to contracting a UTI. Thankfully, another family here with us had Amoxicillin that should help if it is in fact a UTI. She got her first dose of that this afternoon along with around the clock Tylenol to ward off her fever. Our only other option, because of the holiday going on here, was to take her to the Children's Hospital here. You can imagine that was not a comforting option for us as we need to do everything we can to make our Consulate appointment on Thursday and get her visa so we can travel home. Our guide here talked us through what they would most likely do at the hospital (take her temp, draw blood to test for infection, prescribe an antibiotic) so we felt good enough about trying the Amoxicillin before going that route. We are doing our best to keep her hydrated, offering her the bottle every couple of minutes trying to encourage her to drink. Thankfully, she did have three wet diapers throughout the day. She cried and fussed the majority of the day, but seemed to be comforted by snuggling up to one of us. We are fervently praying she will respond to the medicine and show some improvement tomorrow. We have our very important consulate appointment first thing tomorrow morning where we will submit her visa documents and attend an oath-taking ceremony. Once that is over, we simply wait for her visa to be processed by Friday afternoon so we can hop on a plane Friday night. Please pray specifically:

• that Lottie will respond well to the new antibiotic and begin improving
• for her fever to go away
• that Lottie will drink enough to stay hydrated
• for her appetite to return so she can regain her energy
• that everything will go smoothly at the consulate on Thursday
• that Lottie's fever or illness will not interfere at all with getting out of the country and through immigration
• for strength and patience for us as we care for her while she is so sick.